How to Memorize a Deck of Cards: 8 Incredibly Easy Steps

Anthony Metivier's Magnetic Memory Method Podcast

Do you have a system for remembering cards?

Whether it’s for bridge, poker, memory competition or just your own personal memory training, it’s fun and rewarding to commit all 52 cards to memory.

I know, because when I competed against Guinness World Record Holder Dave Farrow in Toronto, my mnemonic system for memorizing cards was barely strong enough to hold my own.

That said, I did half as well as he did and made zero mistakes. I’m quite proud of that, but especially proud that Farrow shared with me some of the techniques he used to memorize more cards than I do. Twice as much, in fact.

And now I can remember a newly shuffled deck in two minutes and thirty seconds. And I hold a particular deck in memory for magic tricks (I’ll show you the stack and how I practice recalling it in a video below).

What’s involved in learning card memorization techniques for yourself?

Well, let’s start by looking first at how to memorize playing cards from a bird’s eye view.

Memory techniques work by dressing up information in costumes. In other words, when you look at the Ace of Spades, you’re also looking at a mnemonic image that you’ve added to it.

Sound weird or confusing?

It certainly can be in the beginning.

That’s why on this page, you’ll learn everything you need to know to dress up each card in a mnemonic costume.

That way, you’ll be able to rapidly place playing cards into both short-term and long-term memory quickly.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!

How to Memorize a Deck of Cards in 8 Steps

As you go through this training, it will be useful to have a pen and paper and a deck of cards in front of you.

That way, you can start taking action immediately.

Step One: Choose An Encoding Method For Your Mnemonic Costumes

In order to memorize cards, each card needs to have a mnemonic image.

There are a few systems for doing this to choose from. The main ones people use are the Major Method or the Dominic System. I personally use a PAO System these days, but was using the Major when I competed with Farrow.

Other systems include the Ben System and the Shadow, which I talked about in detail on my podcast with memory athlete Braden Adams.

You can also listen to one of the most impressive card memorizers on my podcast: Alex Mullen. From what I understand, his approach is grounded upon the Major Method.

No matter what mnemonic system for cards you choose, it’s important to understand the rules of association and why such systems help.

As a magician, I’ve always been dismayed by how many teachers talk about rote learning instead of using mnemonics, and that is why you ultimately have to not only pick your system. You also need to pick your teacher. If you happen to be a magician yourself and want to memorize cards for memdeck work, consider checking out my post on the Tamariz stack.

Step Two: Learn Your Encoding Method

Let’s assume that you’re going to use the Major Method (sometimes called the Major System). You’ll first want to learn the following system:

Here’s a video that walks you through the Major so you can learn the pattern you see on the illustration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4KdSva1fH0

Basically, you want to wind up with words for each pair of numbers, ideally words that are related to an image.

For example, I use “toad” for 11, specifically the Warner Brothers toad. He is in turn associated with the Ace of Spades. I’ll show you why next, but for now, please make sure that you understand why we use the Major.

It’s so that each number is associated with an image that is easy to animate in the mind. That way, when you are placing your images for the cards in a Memory Palace, you can interact the two images in evocative ways that are easy to recall. We’ll discuss this point in greater detail below.

Step Three: Assign The Encoding System To The Suites

Once you have a consonant for each digit 0-9, you’ll then assign a number to each suite.

This arrangement goes back to the early days of mentalism, which often uses memorized deck of cards:

Spades = 10

Diamonds = 30

Clubs = 50

Hearts = 80

Now, a lot of people are going to ask, why these numbers? There’s no strict answer, but one reason has to do with the wider availability of words. You also need to run into the next set of ten using this method, so that is only possible if you leave space.

But at the end of the day, you’re trying to reduce the arbitrariness of the choices to the smallest degree.There is always some arbitrary level, but I find that the Major reduces it to the minimum.

For the sake of this tutorial, do your best to place “why” questions aside and just memorize this association. No matter what system you choose, there will be things that don’t immediately make sense – and they don’t have to make sense. They just need to work.

Step Four: Start Remember The Card/Number Associations

You’ll want to assign each card a number without using the number given to the suites themselves. For example, the spades run like this:

• Ace of Spades = 11
• Two of Spades = 12
• Three of Spades = 13
• Four of Spades = 14
• Five of Spades = 15
• Six of Spades = 16
• Seven of Spades = 17
• Eight of Spades = 18
• Nine of Spades = 19
• Ten of Spades = 20
• Jack of Spades = 21
• Queen of Spades = 22
• King of Spades = 23

Then, when you move to the Diamonds, you start with the Ace of Diamonds at 31.

Step Five: Assign Your Words For The Cards

You need to make words for each of the numbers. Since 1 = a d or t in the Major, you could make a word like “dot” or “toad.”

I prefer toad because it allows me to pick a specific pop culture reference, namely the Warner Brothers toad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsROL4Kf8QY

It’s really important that your choices are logical, concrete and ideally bring to mind a specific pop culture reference.

Step Six: Exaggerate Each Image

Once you have a word that you’ve made as concrete as possible, exaggerate the images. If you’ve chosen well, such as in the case of the Warner Brothers toad, the image if already sufficiently exaggerated.

If you need help with the exaggeration step, consider these powerful visualization exercises.

Step Seven: Practice Mentally

Practice without the cards in hand first.

Practicing without your cards in hand is really important, specifically bringing the image to mind before looking at the card to answer whether or not you got it right. Conducting your practice in this way is called Active Recall and will train your brain to think of the card and its image without an external trigger.

Get out a piece of paper and start writing out all of your associations for the cards, beginning with 11. You’ll soon start to see how helpful the Major is as you go because it lets you guess what your image was. If 1 must be a t or d, then the limited possible words will quickly bring back the word and the image you chose.

Step Eight: Practice With The Cards

Now you’re reading to add playing cards and start recalling the order of a stack or shuffle. Here’s an example of me practicing the recall portion of a memorized deck of cards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56nbsNrRaFw

Shuffle them first, ideally with a combination of overhand shuffles and ladder cuts.

Look at each card, place the image in a Memory Palace and then add the next. Get the images interacting.

For example, my images for Four of Hearts and Eight of Diamonds are the flamethrower used in Mission in Action 2 and the mentalist Max Maven.

(Flamethrowers shoot “fire” which is my word for 84, f+r. Maven is my word for 38, m+v.)

You want to have the images interact with each other in the order of the cards. In this case, I would have the flamethrower igniting Max Maven. Then, Maven would interact with whatever image goes with the next card.

Then, recall the cards, a process that will look like this, as seen in the hands of one of my Magnetic Memory Method Masterclass students:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFZydbjyzEk

Now that you know what to do, let’s talk about the 13 incredible reasons memorizing cards is such a powerful skill to develop.

1. You Experience Overall Memory Improvement

Obviously, memorizing playing cards improves your overall memory. How could such intense memory practice not improve your memory abilities?

After all, the best way to improve your memory is to use it. I normally say that you should always practice your memory by using it to remember information you can use to improve your life in a substantial way, but card memorization is the one exception.

And since there is ALWAYS an exception to every rule, this one is worth your close attention.

The rest of the points I’m about to share explain in detail why card memory is so powerful even if it amounts to memorizing information you cannot and will not use in any immediately practical situation (outside of card magic).

2. Having A System For Remembering Cards Improves Your Memory For Numbers

Not only that, but you wind up with a neat way of remembering a lot of different kinds of numbers.

So long as you don’t let yourself get overwhelmed with excitement by your super memory powers (like I sometimes do), you’ll have the ability to memorize any number after picking up this simple memory technique.

Speaking of excitement, my friend Braden Adams memorized nearly 70 decks of cards for charity. Here’s our discussion about that incredible feat.

3. You’ll Get Good At Memorizing Long Lists

After all, what is a deck of cards other than a list of job positions in a unique order? Learn to remember the order of 52 cards and you’ll instantly know how to memorize 52 of anything.

Then there’s Marno Hermann. He memorized 1200 digits of Pi!

And with a few simple expansions and some practice, you can repeat the process or hundreds if not thousands of lists. It’s easy and fun.

4. You’ll Develop Killer Abilities With Memorizing And Managing Abstractions

https://youtu.be/PUC5N9QORhM

People find memorizing concepts amongst the most difficult information types in the world. The symbols on playing cards are downright abstract themselves, so this skill will lighten the load on other abstractions and arbitrary associations you encounter.

One trick is to simply stop convincing yourself that concepts are different than any other kind of information. Training with card memory will teach you how to stop making that mistake because it levels the playing field. Just like a rose is a rose is a rose, so does all information share certain core tendencies.

When we focus on the differences between information and levels of difficulty, we trick ourselves out. When we zone in on the similarities and refuse to privilege information by placing it in hierarchies of difficulty, we win.

5. Remembering Cards Improves Your Imagination

Just about everyone wishes they could be more imaginative. Knowing how to memorize a deck of cards can help your imagination grow on a daily basis. All you have to do is carry a deck of cards in your pocket. Or, if you don’t want your memorize a deck of cards mnemonics linked to a physical deck of cards, you can use a memorize a deck of cards app.

On the matter of imagination, you’ll also discover other memory experts. Harry Lorayne not only wrote a lot of memory books, but was also a card magician, for example. You can learn a lot from him.

Likewise, you can use the shapes on playing cards to make more Memory Palaces and practice visualization. I share some tips with playing cards at the end of this video about geometry-based Memory Palaces:

https://youtu.be/HAPwOf31N7o

6. Memorizing Cards Helps With Language Learning

To be honest, I’ve only used the card memory application to language learning with the tones of Chinese Mandarin.

But darn if this approach to memorizing Chinese tones with the Major Method isn’t a humdinger! Anytime you can put a number or image on how words should be pronounced in any language, you’ll almost certainly find assistance from this skill.

Plus, I’m convinced that regular card practice has developed my speed and agility with coming up with mnemonics for memorizing vocabulary in any language.

7. Card Memorization Improves Your Critical Thinking

Imagine being able to see more angles to different arguments and manipulate information in your mind. It might sound unrelated to card memorization, but I’m confident you’ll find yourself more capable of manipulating ideas once you have this simple skill.

Why?

You experience boosts in critical thinking from using memory techniques in general because you’re combining spatial memory with the manipulation of perspectives and scenarios.

When you’re using Magnetic Bridging Figures, for example, you spend time considering what it’s like to act and react from different perspectives.

Plus, you’re continually diving deep into your imagination which makes it easier to penetrate other topics imaginatively. You should find that you start thinking at a more engaged level by default.

8. Memorizing Cards Is A Cool Party Stunt

This reason isn’t as lame as it sounds. After all, when those other dudes are winning bets by balancing quarters on the edges of their beer mugs, you’ll be demonstrating real miracles.

Seriously. People will start looking for mirrors.

They’ll look at the back of the cards to check if they’re marked or gimmicked. Recalling a deck of shuffled cards in perfect order is such a stunning feat to watch that it’s hard to believe what’s happening, even if it’s the hundredth or thousandth time you’ve seen it.

If you’re not doing card memorization as a memory stunt, you can also learn to false shuffle cards and perform magic tricks that play like miracles. Provided that you can pull off false cuts and shuffles (it’s not that hard), tricks that use a memorized decks are probably the most powerful you can ever learn.

9. Card memory is a legitimate sport

If you aren’t a physical athlete, but have always felt that lust to compete in some area of human performance, card memory is a great option. The memorize a deck of cards world record list is stunning, inspiring and … frustrating. It’s hard to not want to beat it.

And if you ever give it a try, at either a local, national or international level, you’ll meet a lot of cool and interesting people. And if you attend events like the World Memory Championships, you’ll meet absolute masters of the art. Just listen to Tony Buzan talk about that on this episode of the Magnetic Memory Method Podcast.

10. Having A System For Remembering Cards Is A Transferable Skill

I’ve already got this point covered, but it deserves its own category. You really can use this technique to remember a large assortment of numbers and experience powerful applications in language learning and more.

Having a set of mnemonics for memorizing a deck of cards gives you improved abilities in all areas of memory. And even if you’re already good at memorizing cards, you can always get better.

Alex Mullen may have shocked the world with how quickly he memorized cards, but someone will eventually shock us even more. It could be you and the transferable skills you’ll build along the way will be invaluable.

11. You’ll Experience Untold Waves Of Accomplishment From Card Memorization

When was the last time you felt proud of yourself?

I mean, really proud?

Be honest and don’t worry if it’s been awhile.

With card memory skills, you can feel proud each and every day of your life.

I know self-pride strikes some people as fickle, but it’s not. The normal need for self-confidence is what extraordinary people use to keep their memory sharp and help fend off “digital dementia.”

I’m in no way claiming that mental exercise medically prevents brain disease, but it’s positively logical to assume there are physical benefits at work.

12. You Become More Mentally Agile When You Practice Card Memory

Not only do you experience physical brain benefits, but you strengthen your memory skills across the board. It’s like getting better at skipping rope can make you better in the boxing ring.

Think about your memory in terms of space. You have warm and cozy places of familiarity and outer regions of cold and darkness you rarely visit.

By taking on a simple new skill, you bring heat to more parts of your memory. That means new civilizations of information can move in, giving you the chance to practice managing diverse data as part of your personal and professional growth. Just imagine being able to juggle facts in your mind, knowing each one in crisp and sharp detail thanks to the well-lit fires in your mind.

In fact, you’ll be like the expert juggler, each piece of information like a burning torch you can expertly spin through the air and effortlessly catch in a display of memory mastery.

Plus, knowing how to memorize a deck of cards teaches you to create a system for remembering cards based on classic memory methods. Even better: the practice you’ll get creating and using the system helps you create other memory systems.

It’s in this ability to create memory systems out of an understanding of universal principles of memory and methods that you develop amazing powers of mental agility. Even better, you’ll stop losing your train of thought, which is perhaps my favorite benefit of all.

13. You Can Excel At Card Games Like Bridge, Poker And Blackjack

Imagine being able to remember every single visible card in play during a card game. Do you think that would give you a competitive edge?

It certainly would, even though most experts agree that it would only amount to a 2% advantage.

ONLY.

If you know your numbers, then you know that a 2% advantage in any game is huge. And if that game involves bets with money, be it pennies or dollars, your earnings could be huge.

I myself don’t gamble, but I can tell you that the pleasure I take in playing no-stakes games using memory to my advantage is a lot of fun. And it’s always amazing exercise as one of the most powerful brain games you’ll ever play.

Of course, you don’t have to use memory techniques for gambling games. The “memorize a deck of cards game” world is full of non-competitive “find ’em” variations that have no stakes involved whatsoever. You just lay out card pairs and practice remembering locations so you can match and remove them during game play.

Should You Use An App For Memorizing Playing Cards?

A lot of people ask me to recommend my favorite memorize a deck of cards app.

I always tell them to simply carry a deck of cards with them. In combination with your brain, a physical deck is the best deck of cards app on the planet. At least, that’s my view, and I think this way because working with a physical deck gets the muscles of your hands, arms and eyes involved in card memorization at a much deeper level.

No, I don’t have any direct research to make claims that you get a memory advantage when using a real deck of cards. In fact, using a memorize a deck of cards app, provided it includes such functionality, has the advantage of tracking your results on autopilot.

By the same token, you get equally great results by tracking your results by hand, including developing the discipline of monitoring results based on a tracking system of your own creation. Ultimately, if you take the art of creating a system for remembering cards seriously, you’ll eventually create your own tracking methods anyway.

If you come to rely on a memorize a deck of cards app, you won’t be able to modify its tracking modifications to your needs. But you’ll likely have become habituated to using it, which means you may be less likely to evolve. Or maybe you’ll be more likely to evolve … it could go either way.

Anyhow, I walk my talk when it comes to this issue. Here’s a pic of one of my card memorization drills in a noisy cafe in Berlin:

I literally just pull out a deck, memorize and then test in the time that I have. I still practice this way a few times a week, even if it’s just a quarter of the deck at a time when I’m not able to practice more than that.

So, if you’re serious about memory improvement, I recommend getting started straight away. Memorizing cards is in my view one of the most powerful memory training routines in the world.

Once you’ve recalled even just 1/4 of a deck of cards, you’ll be convinced of how much potential your memory holds. This simple feat of memory accomplishment will create energy and inspiration that keeps you moving forward. Once you’ve accurately recalled just a few cards you’ll know just how easy it is to learn, remember and recall anything.

It’s a life changing experience and I can’t wait to hear your story of success with developing your own system for remembering cards!